


Albali

by yeaka



Category: Tatsinda - Elizabeth Enright
Genre: F/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 02:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11842509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Despite everything, Tatsinda enjoys Prince Tackatan’s birthday before the giant comes.





	Albali

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Tatsinda (by Elizabeth Enright, illustrated by Irene Haas) was one of my mother’s childhood books from 1963 and one of my favourite fairy tales still. I just wanted to do a little something for it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own Tatsinda or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

The palace is lovelier than ever, decorated for the prince’s birthday with many glistening lights that line the ceiling like stars, the moon still streaming in through the high windows and translucent walls. The air is full of the rich smell of baking, fruits and treats crowding one long banquet table after the other, and the flowers laced in bouquets about the pillars lighten the heady scent. Music plays from all different corners, complimenting each other in their smooth rhythms, though Tatsinda can’t help but feel they would sound just a _little_ bit better if Prince Tackatan’s tetrina rang amongst them. 

When her totle is set amongst all the other gifts, she’s free to roam the hall. The place is full, as it should be: Tackatan isn’t only a prince, but a beloved one, and she can’t begrudge anyone wanting to come pay him their best wishes. She still finds herself wishing it weren’t _quite_ so full inside, because it takes some time to spot him amidst all the other guests. There’s a sea of white and blue, but when she sees him, his radiance overshadows all the rest, and Tatsinda drifts to him like in a dream. 

Tamberine is in his arms, stunning in her gown and necklace of torms, the two of them spinning about the dance floor. Tatsinda stops not far from them, having no wish to rudely interrupt. But it makes her heart hurt to see it. Even if her gift doesn’t work—she asked Tanda-nan only for a _chance_ at him, not he himself—she would’ve liked a final night with him. Surely Tackatan and Tamberine’s betrothal, arranged since they were children, will culminate soon now that he’s come of age. Then he’ll have less freedom to dance with other girls, and guilt will keep Tatsinda from trying to steal him away.

But tonight the guilt wanes as she sees them: really _looks_ at them together, at the way they stare over one another’s shoulders, avoiding each other’s clear eyes. Tamberine’s gaze is in the distance, her body just a little further from Tackatan’s than it should be, her hand in his but her fingers not curled around it. Tatsinda knows that if Tackatan held her so, she’d latch tightly to him, never wanting to let go. Seeing him now makes her breathless like a long run through the mists; she’s pulled to him, as she always is.

And when he sees her over the long curls of Tamberine’s pearl hair, his crystalline eyes glimmer with joy, his bow lips spreading into a wide smile. Tastinda returns it full force. He holds her gaze until the turn of the dance forces him away, and then the song comes to its end, and he steps back, bowing to his future bride. Tamberine barely seems to notice him. She startles out of her reverie, nods her head in return, and breaks away from him. She heads swiftly for his brother instead, while Tastinda eagerly awaits Tackatan’s approach.

He comes to her during the next song, still smiling, a little taller than her but looking the perfect fit. She’s always loved him, since they were small and could share a timtik together, but that love’s grown with the years into new and wondrous heights. He was cute when he was young, sweet and always kind to her, even before the other children, when she was still too _different_ for any to understand. Now he’s grown almost absurdly handsome, beautiful in a way she can’t describe—it goes beyond her words, into thought and feeling. “Mydeloo.” He asks her in a voice like music, “Would you please dance with me, Tatsinda?”

And she nods, of course she does—moves right into him, so fast that her fingers have threaded between his before the next song’s started. He laughs delightedly and wraps his strong hand tighter around hers, squeezing once. His skin is warm as the earth, soft to her touch, and even the smell of him makes her dizzy, makes her want nothing more than _this_ : her world seems to narrow down to just the two of them as he sweeps her back onto the dance floor. He guides her through each step, but in truth, she follows just as swiftly, reading and anticipating, because they’ve always managed to fall blessedly in sync. They move as one, he in his classic perfection and her in her golden ugliness, but no one stops them. He looks at her in a way he didn’t seem to see Tamberine, and she can’t tear her gaze away.

The moment is such a joyous one that it passes too swiftly, and she doesn’t even notice the song coming to an end until all those around her are switching partners. Custom should deliver him back into Tamberine’s arms, but she’s still in Prince Taskin’s, and Tackatan doesn’t let go of Tatsinda. She makes no move to leave. He motions her into a second dance, and she’s never been so happy.

It makes her wonder if she needed Tanda-nan’s aid at all. She’s no longer so sure she even wants it. Perhaps she has some chance without the good-luck charm of her hair woven into the totle, and perhaps their next meeting would be sweeter if it braved the impossibility of a prior engagement without any such enchantments.

Their second dance ends, and she must relinquish her gorgeous partner, because his father comes to tap his shoulder and whisk him away. She drifts towards the food without him, thinking to eat while she waits, but her stomach’s fluttering too much and her head’s too thin with pleasure to stand. She sits in a chair by the wall instead, until Prince Tackatan returns to ask her for another dance, and Tatsinda, like always, says _yes_.


End file.
